The second lockdown. How to handle it? I'll give you 3 practical tips.
The first decision to be taken is very simple: do I see this period as an advantage or otherwise? You need to approach the closed period with optimism, courage and enthusiasm, using it to best effect to fix all the things that weren't working previously.
Maybe you weren't even aware of the things that didn't work, you were on the hamster wheel and took it for granted that "we've always done it this way". Let's concentrate on what we can do here and now:
- for ourselves
- for our business
- the environment
Let's get it into our heads that nothing will be the same, or rather: "Everything has to change to go back to the way it was"!
Covid-19 is merely an accelerator of the process: instead of coming over a long period, the change is happening NOW, in a short window of time.
Now try thinking about what you were like ten years ago and what you’re like now. So much has changed, right? So, this period should be used to change for the better, in a short time.
The second step: it's important not to waste time and to give yourself goals.
Gazing out of the window, reading articles and browsing social media, waiting for the situation to loosen up is definitely the worst way to approach this time. Let's give ourselves goals that are achievable, realistic and measurable. Put a limit on our social media activity and get round to all those little jobs we've been putting off. Let's take the time to do things that make us feel good, and plan our days with timings to keep to, allowing just one or two 15-minute windows for social media.
It's essential to understand our circumstances by investing time in ourselves, our business and the environment around us (whether we like it or not, it’s an integral part of the package we sell).
The third step: invest in training. Your own and your employees'.
Invest in greener choices (I'll discuss this later, the trends are illuminating). And training leads us directly to the issue of mindset, a series of beliefs that are hard to shake. Thinking "I'll never be able to play the guitar like so-and-so" places us in front of a wall that's very difficult to climb. Our approach should be "I can take guitar lessons and get good too".
So let's change our approach and decide who we want to be and how we want our business.